A couple of years ago I published ‘Expecto Patronum’, a review of the A6 Green Deer notebook by Dingbats; and now the time has come to once more say Expecto ‘Patronum’ and for Prongs to ride again.
This time Prongs to rides again as A5+ version of the Green Deer notebook.
The one thing that really intrigued me was whether or not the small difference between A5 and A5+ was enough to persuade me it was worth while. After all, A5 is 210mm x 148.5mm and A5+ is 215mm x 160mm; so would so few millimetres make much of a difference?
So, I decided to invest £15.95GBP and find out.
Now the first thing you should know about Dingbats is that they are passionately committed to the environment which is why their notebooks are certified as vegan. If you want to know more there is a lot of detailed information on their site and if want to know even more drop them a line, they are very nice people who do respond to emails.
Ok, back the notebook. Well, it is a hardback covered in biodegradable faux leather and debossed on the front cover is a stag, Harry’s and his father’s Patronus. The rest of the cover is patterned to look like leather and is neatly stitched around the edges. Integrated into the rear cover is an elastic closure and a pen loop. Both are made from good quality elastic, so they don’t go slack in the blink of an eye like other makes; the pen loop is really only suitable for a pencil or a slim pen e.g., a Bic ballpoint.
Inside the notebook it has 192 pages of 100gsm fountain pen friendly cream paper, my version is lined, and the lines are a light grey with 7mm spacing and because the notebook is stitched rather than glue bound the pages do lie almost flat so you can use around 95% of the width of the page. It also has a marker ribbon.
I tested the paper using a fountain pen loaded with Diamine Red Dragon and whilst I could see the text on the reverse side none of the ink bled through so both sides of the page are usable without any problems; this is definitely a fountain pen friendly notebook.
Going back to where I started; the question was do the extra millimetres make a difference? I really think they do, the notebook is a little more square than A5 alternatives and I found that a little more comfortable and easy to use and I noticed this immediately when I was doing the ink test.
If you are looking for something a little bigger than A5, without going up to A4, that will easily fit in your bag without taking up too much space then the Dingbats A5+ range could be exactly what you are looking for.
I am very happy to recommend Dingbats notebooks; it’s one of those times where you can genuinely say that you can’t go wrong if you buy one of their notebooks.
Disclaimer: The notebook was purchased with my own funds, at retail price. The opinions expressed in this review are my own; and I am not connected with either the retailers or manufacturers in any way.
The Indian Marmalade Company 